New Delhi: The Congress continues to suffer from the ‘Emergency mindset” and puts interests of a family above those of the party and the nation, the BJP said on Thursday, drawing a sharp retort from the opposition party which claimed the saffron party runs a government of two people with all others as mere “sidekicks”.
The two parties traded barbs on the 45th anniversary of Emergency, with Home Minister Amit Shah launching a frontal assault on the Gandhi family of the Congress, saying “the interests of one family prevailed over party’s interests and national interests, and this sorry state of affairs thrives in today’s Congress too!”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has often slammed the Congress for the Emergency, on Thursday paid his tributes to people who fought against it but did not directly attack the opposition party. Shah was joined by several senior BJP leaders, including party president J P Nadda and Union ministers Prakash Javadekar and Ravi Shankar Prasad, in attacking the Congress. Shah said the “Emergency mindset” still remained in the Congress and that the “sad truth” was that leaders were feeling suffocated in the party.
“On this day, 45 years ago one family’s greed for power led to the imposition of the Emergency. Overnight the nation was turned into a prison. The press, courts, free speech… all were trampled over. Atrocities were committed on the poor and downtrodden,” he said in his tweets. Hitting back at Shah, the Congress asked why the BJP-led Centre that runs a “majoritarian rule” is described as a “government of two people”. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the country’s ruling party needs to answer, “Why is horse trading, mass defections and institution capture its only legacy? Why is it obsessed in its vile hatred of Nehru-Gandhi’s (sic).” Why is its majoritarian rule described as a government of two people only and all others as sidekicks, he added. In his attack, Shah referred to the recent Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting and said many members raised a few issues but they were shouted down. He said a Congress spokesperson was unceremoniously sacked. (PTI)
